All Come Crashing Down
by NoDayButToday971
Summary: On the outside, the Goodman family looks like the picture perfect American family. Their son is the captain of the football team. Their daughter is a straight A student with a natural talent for music. But what happens when that family is struck with tragedy?
1. Almost Perfect

Gabe Goodman was just getting home from a party. His dad had told him he couldn't go, so he had snuck out instead. The party had been to celebrate the win that landed them a spot in the playoffs, he had to go. He closed the front door softly, hoping that no one noticed that he was gone.

"And where have you been, young man?"

"Shit... Sorry mom."

Gabe turned around to face his mother with a sheepish look on his face.

"Mom, you know that I had to go! The party was for the football team. I'm the captain, I would have had to go even if I didn't want to."

His mother, Diana, sighed and got up off the sofa.

"I know sweetie. You're lucky I caught you, your father would've grounded you. Now go to bed. You have school tomorrow."

"Okay... Thanks mom."

"Love you, Gabe. Good night."

"Night Mom, love you too."

Gabe sighed as he trudged up the stairs to go to bed. Just as he was about to close his bedroom door, his sister peaked out of her room across the hall.

"Well, look who was out late. Shouldn't you be in bed or something?"

"Look whose talking. Don't you have a test tomorrow, Natalie?"

"For your information, I do. I'm studying for it."

"Whatever. Night Natalie."

"Goodnight Gabe, sleep well."

He closed his door and sighed. He stripped off his shirt and flopped onto the bed. He lay there for a hour before giving up on the idea of sleep. It was 4 am. It's not like he was going to get much sleep anyway.

**. . .**

Dan groaned as his alarm clock went off. Without getting up, he reached out and groped around for the snooze button. He lay there for a moment more before groaning again and getting up. He looked over at the bed beside him to discover that his wife was already up. Dan couldn't understand how she could wake up so early when he struggled to get out of bed at 6:30. He pulled himself out of bed and stumbled to the closest to get ready for the day. Diana, on the other hand, was already up and cooking breakfast. Gabe jogged downstairs as soon as he smelled food.

"Morning mom. Smells good." Diana just smiled and put a plate in front of Gabe. Natalie wasn't to far behind him. She came downstairs and sat down at the table with a yawn.

"Good morning, sweetie. Sleep well?" Natalie just grunted in response and began eating. Dan was the last one to make it downstairs. He grabbed a cup of coffee and sat down to read the paper. Everything was the same normal routine. Soon, everyone was off to school and work, and Diana was alone.

"Today's going to be a good one." She said to herself as she started on the dishes.

**. . .**

Diana was just starting dinner when Dan got home.

"Hi honey, how was work?"

"Boring, as usual. Where is everybody?"

"Gabe's still at practice and Natalie's probably still rehearsing for her Yale audition. They should be home soon though." Sure enough, about 15 minutes later Gabe and Natalie walked through the door. Natalie promptly headed up the stairs to her room.

"Hi mom, hi dad! I'm gonna go start on my homework."

"Okay, sweetie. Dinners in 10 minutes."

**. . .**

The Goodman family were just finishing up dinner when Gabe asked to be excused. Diana looked at him.

"Are you sure sweetie? You've barely touched your food."

"Yeah. I'm just not that hungry. I'm gonna go take a shower."

"Okay sweetie."

**. . .**

It was about a half an hour later when Diana headed upstairs. She was headed to her room when she realized that the shower was still on.

"Gabe? Sweetie? Are you still in there?" Gabe didn't reply. The only thing that she could hear was the sound of water droplets hitting the ground.

"Gabe?... Gabriel?..." Her heart started pounding. She kept calling his name, but he wouldn't answer. She pushed the door open to find Gabe lying in the tub surrounded by a pool of his own blood. The entire neighborhood could hear her scream.


	2. Sirens

Dan was downstairs when he heard Diana scream. His head snapped up from the newspaper that he was reading. Only when he heard another scream, this time from Natalie, did he jump up from his chair. He sprinted up the stairs to find his daughter standing in the doorway of the bathroom, crying. He rushed to the door and pushed Natalie aside, only to see something that would haunt his dreams for the rest of his life. His son, his little boy, was lying on the ground in a pool of his own blood. Diana was clinging to him, begging him to wake up. Dan fell to his knees and blindly reached for his son. The only thing that he could think of was no. No. This can't be happening, He was wrenched from his thoughts when Natalie started sobbing. They needed to get help.

"Call 911..." he whispered, "Call 911!" Natalie still didn't move.

"Natalie! Call 911! Do it! NOW!" He screamed at her. She sprinted from the room and Dan collapsed, clinging to his sons body.

**.** **.** **.**

Nancy was having a pretty boring day at work. Then again, boring is good when you're a 911 operator. It was about 8:00pm when she got her first serious call of the night.

"911 what's your emergency?" All she heard was sobbing on the other end of the line.

"Hello? Sweetie, are you all right? Are you hurt?" The girl just kept on crying.

"What happened, sweet heart? Do you need help?" Between sobs the girl managed to choke out 'My brother', 'so much blood', and 'help'.

"It's okay, sweetie. Help is on the way. Where are you at right now?"

"1402 Lancaster Lane." Nancy typed the address into the computer and quickly dispatched an ambuance.

"Do you want me to stay on the phone with you until the ambulance gets there?"

"Please..."

"Okay, Sweetie. You're doing so good. Whats your name Honey?"

"Natalie Goodman."

"Okay, Natalie, the ambulance is on it's way." This seemed to calm Natalie down some.

"Natalie, can you tell me what happened?"

"My brother... he... he..." The sobbing started fresh again. The only thing that Nancy could make out was 'blood' and 'dead'. She heard the sirens a few minutes later.

**. . .**

The paramedics rushed into 1402 Lancaster Lane. They followed the sound of sobbing upstairs to the bathroom. The parents were clinging to the boy, sobbing while a teenage girl cried in her room. The parents had to be forcibly removed from the boy in order for the paramedics to get to him. The parents struggled and screamed as the paramedics pushed them back. By the time they got to him, his body was already getting cold. He must have been dead for almost an hour before the call was made. The only thing they could do was say that they were sorry and zip up the body in a black polyethylene bag and take it away to the morgue.


	3. The Morning After Tragedy

The paramedics were gone, but the house was far from quiet. The house at 1402 Lancaster Lane was filled with the sound of sobs and ringing telephones. Dan was the closest to the house phone, but he didn't seem to care. He just sat in his chair with his head in his hands. Earlier he had managed to usher Diana into bed, where she continued to cry. Natalie locked herself away in her room, tucked under the covers crying silently. She had pillows pressed to her ears to block out her mothers cries. It was 3:00 in the morning before Dan unplugged the phone. The ringing stopped and the house went silent. He trudged up the stairs to check on the remaining members of his family. Remaining. He never thought that he would ever have to say that. He cracked open Natalie's door and found her curled up in a nest of blankets with tear-stained cheeks. He quietly closed the door and went to the bedroom he shared with his wife. Diana was curled up into the fetal position with her back to the door. She must have cried herself to sleep. Dan crept over and kissed her forehead before leaving. He shut the door as gently as possible and walked back to the bathroom. He flipped on the light to see the pool dried blood. His son's blood. The only thing left from that disastrous night, other than an empty room. He sighed and went to get a bucket.

**. . .**

It was early morning Dan finished cleaning the floor. He dumped the last bucket of dirty water and dried his blood stained hands. The house was still quiet. Dan knocked softly on Natalie's bedroom door.

"Natalie... it's time to get up for school. Natalie...?" He opened the door to find his daughter fast asleep. He sat down on the edge of the bed and gently nudged her awake.

"Natalie. You need to get up."

"Uugh. Why? After what happened last night you expect me to go to school?"

"If you miss, you'll lose your perfect attendance record."

"Yeah, of course. That's what you'd be worried about right now! Get out!" Natalie pushed her father out of her room and slammed the door. Dan sighed and went back downstairs. He plugged the phone in to call into work. For the moment, the phone was silent. He dialed the number for his work and stayed on the line just long enough to call in. He did the same for Diana. Dan sunk back into his chair and closed his eyes.

**. . .**

He was woken up when Natalie came downstairs.

"I'm going to school." Her voice sounded flat and empty, but Dan didn't seem to notice.

"Okay. Have fun." Natalie scoffed.

"Bye." She left, slamming the door behind her. Dan sighed and pulled himself up out of his chair. He stumbled his way up to the bedroom where Diana was still asleep. Dan fell into bed and wrapped his arms around his wife.

"We'll get through this. Things will get better, I promise." He whispered as he kissed her cheek. Dan closed his eyes and quickly fell asleep.

* * *

><p><strong>Hi everyone! I'm really liking this story. I pretty much have the whole story planned out, so there should be fairly regular updates. As always, reviews are super great and make me happy! Have a happy holidays everyone!<strong>


	4. Realization

Hey guys! I'm so sorry that it took me this long to get another chapter up! I got a new computer because my old one died (again). Microsoft word refused, and still refuses, to download on the new computer, so I currently have Open Office. But, hey! Now I can type some stuff up! For this story, I'm going to update on Fridays. This story is unbetaed, so if there are any glaring errors please let me know. Anyway, please enjoy this new chapter!

* * *

><p>As soon as Natalie got to school, she was bombarded with questions.<p>

"Was there an ambulance at your house last night?"

"Is everybody okay?"

"What happened last night?"

"Are you okay?"

"Where's Gabe?"

"Hey, are you crying?"

Natalie managed to push her way through the crowd and into the bathroom. She dropped her backpack and ran into a stall. She locked the stall door behind her and sat down on the edge of the toilet seat. She felt tears fall down her cheeks and in the back of her mind she worried about her eyeliner. She laughed at that. Typical, she can't even stop worrying after her brother... She started sobbing again. She hated this, she hated everything. Why did she have to come to school today? Why couldn't she stay at home? At least she could cry in privacy there.

She heard the 10 minute warning bell go off. She hauled herself up and tried to get herself together. She went to the mirror to try and salvage what was left of her makeup. She sniffled and scrubbed her eyeliner off her cheeks before picking up her back pack. She hurried to her locker and stuffed her backpack inside. She grabbed her math binder and ran up two flights of stairs to make it to class in time. She reached the class room as the one minute warning bell rang, but she couldn't bring herself to go inside just yet. Other students pushed past her to get into the room. Natalie took one last deep breath and pushed open the door.

**. . .**

It didn't take very long for the rest of the school to put the pieces of the puzzle together. There was an ambulance at the Goodman house last night, Gabe wasn't at school today. Honestly, Natalie didn't couldn't believe how long it took everyone to figure it out. The rumors started flying around the school. One person thought that Gabe was in prison because he killed one of their parents. Another thought that Gabe might of fallen down the stairs, so now they didn't have a chance at the championships. The rumors ranged from absolutely crazy to dead on accurate. Soon, everyone was texting Gabe like crazy.

_Dude, why aren't you at school? _

_Hey Gabe! Are you sick?_ :(

_Bro, did you kill somebody?_

_Dude, did you get hurt? We don't have a chance without you._

_What was up at your house last night?_

_Dude, are you there?_

**. . .**

Dan woke up with a groan. An extremely annoying beeping noise had woken him up. He rooted around trying to turn off his alarm clock. After a few moments of arm flailing, he finally opened his eyes and looked towards his alarm clock. 1:27. Why the hell would he ave an alarm set for 1:27? He picked up the clock and hit every button her could find, but the beeping didn't stop. Dan pulled the power cord out of the electrical socket hard enough to hit himself in the face with the plug. He threw the alarm clock down and rubbed his face. The beeping was still there. He pulled himself out of bed and went in search of the incessant beeping.

Well, it wasn't coming from Natalie's room. Not in the bathroom, not in their room. Dan soon found himself standing in front of the door to Gabe's room. He hesitated before pushing the door open and walking in. Dan stopped in his tracks. Gabe was normally very messy. His clothes were usually strewn all over the floor, papers were usually everywhere, his bed was never made. But today, everything was spotless. This clothes were even folded inside of his closet, his bed was perfectly made, his desk was cleared off except for an open notebook and his cell phone.

The phone was lit up and beeping every five seconds. Dan picked it up and read the screen. _48 New Messages. _He looked down and saw the most recent text, from someone named Josh: _Gabe, are you okay? _Dan slammed the phone down and closed his eyes. He couldn't handle this right now, he just couldn't. He sighed and slowly open his eyes. He turned off Gabe's phone before another text message could pop up. He gently set the phone down on the desk and looked around Gabe's room. It almost looked as if no one had lived in it for years. His eyes wandered until they fell on the notebook on the desk. Dan frowned and picked it up.

He began to read. _'By the time anyone finds this...'._ Dan stopped and stumbled back until his legs hit the bed. He sat down as tears began to fall again. This was Gabe's suicide note. His _son's _suicide note. There was no chance that all of this was an accident now. Dan steeled his nerves and began to read again.

_'By the time anyone finds this, I'll be dead...'_

* * *

><p>Bum bum bum! Cliff hanger! (aka I'm really bad at writing suicide notes so I need more time for that part). Hope you guys enjoyed everything! Expect the next chapter to be up on Friday. As always, reviews are greatly appreciated! Thanks for reading.<p> 


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